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March 12, 2013
Mini-Symposium on Laterites or Laterwrongs: Making the Pieces Fit
On Tuesday March 26, 2013 the TGDG will host a selection of speakers for a mini-symposium at Hart House on ‘Laterites or Laterwrongs: Making the Pieces Fit’. Speakers include Ravi Anand (CSIRO), Peter Winterbourne (Vale), and Ron Schonewille (Xstrata)...
March 11, 2013
CET Seminar Series starts March 15 with presentation on The Past and Future of Nickel Discovery
Hailing from industry, government and academia, high profile Australian and internationally-based researchers will join the CET fortnightly to share their experience on a wide variety of geoscience topics.These seminars are FREE and all interested Geologists are welcome to attend...
February 25, 2013
Is regulation robbing exploration properties of their worth?You can’t get chickens if you don’t allow the eggs to develop. Joe Hinzer, president of geological consulting firm Watts, Griffiths and McOuat (WGM), uses this analogy to illustrate how many early-stage exploration projects are being stifled by current mineral valuation regulations before they have a shot at becoming mines...
February 04, 2013
Roundup 2013: HDI's Thiessen sees 'mining renaissance'
It has been a busy 24 hours as the Association for Mineral Exploration British Columbia (AME BC) kicked off its Mineral Exploration Roundup 2013...
January 29, 2013
Where do I meet the geologists of Africa?Africa is more than 20 per cent of the world’s land area, is home to 15 per cent of human population but still earns its label as the Dark Continent through generating only 2 per cent of the world’s electricity. Where can you find the geologists exploring this sleeping giant with its inevitable future in the resources sector?
January 28, 2013
CMIC Footprints project sets sights on large ore-forming systems
As exploration programs focus on remote and concealed targets, the ability to recognize large ore-forming systems – from the most distal margins to high-grade cores – becomes increasingly important. Efforts are therefore under way to generate sophisticated “footprint” or “signature” models of high-value deposits.
December 2, 2012
Greenfields come to Perth for Greenland Day
The December 4th Greenland Day, taking place in Perth, will feature industry and geoscience experts from across the globe, discussing Greenland’s burgeoning exploration opportunities and recent research advances...
November 1, 2012
On Nov 8, Discover the Future of Exploration
Some of the sector's leading minds will be looking into their crystal balls on November 8th, trying to summon a picture of what the future might hold for exploration and mining in Canada...
September 11, 2012
Petrobras Starts Output at Baleia Azul Presalt Field
Brazilian state-run energy giant Petroleo Brasileiro, or Petrobras, said Tuesday that it had started oil production at the Baleia Azul presalt field in the offshore Campos Basin...
September 11, 2012
Is Gold Regaining its Glitter?
Barrick Gold CEO Jamie Sokalsky speaks with Carl Quintanilla on CNBC about Barrick's strategy to drive shareholder value...
September 10, 2012
The Long Term Tie Between Energy Supply, Population, and the Economy
The tie between energy supply, population, and the economy goes back to the hunter-gatherer period...
July 12, 2012
Exploration needed to kickstart next mining boom
A massive two thirds of Western Australia remains unexplored for minerals and geologists say the territory presents huge potential...
July 12, 2012
Teams Finding New Ways to Shale Success
Shale and other unconventional resources are being called the biggest game changer in a generation - and as land and other costs escalate, the industry continues to apply lessons gleaned from the early successes...
July 11, 2012
How EM geophysics can help feasibility studies
In this exclusive interview with Professor David Thiel, Director at the Centre for Wireless Monitoring and Applications at Griffith University, he discusses how electromagnetic geophysics can help those who are conducting a feasibility study and opens up on the real cost benefits of this technology...
July 11, 2012
Mining security - opening up Latin America
Improved security has started to open up new areas for mineral exploration in Latin America....
Make a comment Repeat discoverers share their secrets
by Virginia Heffernan on March 15, 2012 Expertise
Ronald Parratt, executive chairman of Renaissance Gold, in the field in Nevada.
If there’s one thing PDAC conference organizers excel at, it’s convincing international experts to drop everything and travel to Toronto to share their knowledge in the inhospitable month of March. In keeping with that tradition, some of world’s best exploration geologists gathered as a panel at PDAC 2012 to discuss what makes them repeat discovers when the majority of their peers spend their whole careers looking for, but never quite finding, an orebody. Here is some of their advice:
Sample, Sample, Sample
This should be every field geologist’s mantra, says Ronald Parratt, who played a significant role in the discovery of the Lone Tree and Trenton Canyon gold mines in Nevada. You can learn a lot about the geology and mineralization of an area by taking copious soil, stream and rock samples. With modern exploration tools and data management programs, finding patterns in the results has become easier and more accurate.
Cultivate your skill in being wrong
If you are not willing to make mistakes, then you will never find a mine. David Lowell of Escondida and Pierina fame reckons that his “most outstanding talent” is being good at being wrong.
Drill as soon, and as much, as possible
Management and board fatigue means that geologists rarely get to nurture a project as long as they’d like to. Get the drills in the ground and use a shotgun approach if appropriate to extract the most information as possible for the lowest price. Lowell says he wouldn’t have found Escondida without importing RC drills into Chile to run a dense program of shotgun drilling.
Be prepared to adjust your business model
Mining is a cyclical business and sometimes you have to be flexible to respond to changing metal prices, financing challenges, or new expertise. A good example is consulting firm Archer, Cathro & Associates, which started out providing project management for underground exploration in 1966, evolved into a successful grass roots explorer (Casino & Wolverine in the Yukon) and has worn several other hats along the way including small-scale silver producer, junior mining company and a “mini merchant bank” for other juniors.
Use your intuition
Mineral exploration is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with 60% of the pieces missing, says Hunter Dickinson’s Bob Schafer. Use your intuition and experience to recognize patterns and footprints when faced with minimal or imperfect info.
Don’t be afraid to stick your neck out.
When management told Mark Rebagliati not to collar any holes east of the Pebble pit outline for environmental reasons, he worked around that directive by moving his drill inside the proposed pit walls and drilling east from there. The deposit he discovered, Pebble East, now contains more than three billion tonnes of ore grading 1% copper and is considered one of the biggest mineralized copper systems in the world.
Thanks to Rob Carne of ATAC Resources (formerly of Archer Cathro), Bob Schafer and Mark Rebagliati of Hunter Dickinson, David Lowell of CIC Resources, John Morganti of Morganti Advisors, Ronald Parratt of Renaissance Gold and Vic Wall of Vic Wall & Associates for sharing your considerable expertise.